I’m 4 days in on my first-ever sourdough starter adventure, and let me tell you, it’s been an emotional and exciting journey! Earlier this year, I shared that one of my kitchen goals for the year was to buy less bread and make more bread at home. Then the coronavirus became a pandemic and everyone started making bread and flour and yeast became hot commodities. So, I figured – like the rest of the United States – why not jump right into sourdough bread, since you don’t need yeast. So, I started my own little sourdough starter earlier this week, and intend to put together a day-by-day process once I’ve successfully finished my starter. For now, I wanted to share a simple recipe I made, using the sourdough discard. So today I’m sharing the first of my Sourdough Adventures – Sourdough Discard Crumpets.

What on earth is discard?

So, what is sourdough discard? Before taking this plunge into the world of sourdough, I didn’t actually know why “discard” existed. I’d see recipes for discard, but didn’t know why people had it. Basically, sourdough discard is the portion of the sourdough starter that you have to get rid of before each feeding. Here’s a great article that explains the sourdough process and talks more about discard. Each time you feed your starter, you have to give it enough flour and water to sufficiently feed it. If you didn’t discard a portion of the starter before feeding, you’d be left with an increasingly growing [massive] starter and you’d have to feed it increasingly larger portions. Make sense?

I’m following these instructions for my sourdough starter, and am currently on Day 4. I feed “Harry” twice a day now, and twice a day I’m left with approximately 1 cup of discard. For the first two days, I actually tossed the discard into the compost. Then it started smelling yummier and fruitier, and decided I should start using it. The first recipe I made using the discard was rosemary crackers. Let me tell you: making your own crackers is SO SIMPLE and they’re so much better than any crackers you buy at the store.

The second recipe I made using the discard was these sourdough discard crumpets, and that’s what I’m sharing with you today. The recipe is not my own; it’s from King Arthur Flour.

Recipe for Sourdough Crumpets

makes 4-5 crumpets

Ingredients
1 cup (445 g) sourdough starter, unfed/discard
1 tsp sugar
1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt
3/8 tsp baking soda

Directions

1. Stir together all ingredients in a medium bowl. Batter should rise up and get a bit puffier.
2. Heat skillet to medium-low heat. Melt about 1 tbsp butter in skillet.
3. The original recipe calls for using English muffin rings; I don’t own these, so I just poured the batter directly onto the pan without the rings. A reader suggested using mason jar lids, which is brilliant!
4. Cook for approximately 5 minutes on first side, until tops are full of small holes. Flip crumpets over, and cook for about another 3 minutes, until they are golden.
5. Enjoy with butter melted on top. Silverware & plate, optional. You might not even get that far.

Enjoy this tasty recipe; I’ll be sharing more of my sourdough adventures soon!